HEIKE BEHREND
Translated by Mitch Cohen
James Currey OXFORD
Fountain Publishers KAMPALA
EAEP NAIROBI
Ohio University Press ATHENS
eBook edition published 2016
Ohio University Press
James Currey
Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge
Suffolk IP12 3DF (GB)
Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt Hope Avenue
Rochester, NY 14620-2731 (US)
1 2 3 4 5 03 02 01 00 99
Originally published as
Behrend, Heike: Alice und die Geister: Krieg im Norden Uganda Munich: Trickster, 1993 (Uroboros; Vol. 4)
Translated with the financial support of Inter Nationes
ISBN 9970-02-197-4 (Fountain Publishers Paper)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Behrend, Heike
Alive & the spirits : war in northern Uganda, 1985-97. -
(Eastern African Studies)
1. Acoli (African people) - Religion 2. Religion and politics - Uganda 3. Spiritualism - Uganda. 4. Uganda - History - 1979 - I. Title
299.6’9761
ISBN 0-85255-248-3 (James Currey Cloth)
ISBN 0-85255-247-5 (James Currey Paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 0-8214-1310-4 (Ohio University Press Cloth)
ISBN 0-8214-1311-2 (Ohio University Press Paper)
Typeset in 10/11pt Baskerville
by Long House Publishing Services, Cumbria, UK
Printed in Great Britain
by Villiers Publications, London N3
ISBN 978-1-78204-784-1 (James Currey eISBN)
ISBN 978-0-8214-4570-9 (Ohio University Press eISBN)
For Dan Mudoola
Contents
JOHN MIDDLETON
1. The Troubles of an Anthropologist
2. The History & Ethnogenesis of the Acholi
4. The War of the Holy Spirit Mobile Forces
5. The Holy Spirit Movement as a Regional Cult
7. The History of Religions in Acholi
9. The Texts of the Holy Spirit Movement
10. The War in Acholi, 1987–96
Figures & Tables
FIGURES
5.1. The Temple of Opit
9.1. Exercise Book used by the HSMF
9.2. Wrong Element’s stamp
9.3. Head controlists meeting
9.4. Tactical instructions
TABLES
9.1. Holy Spirit Mobile Forces Operation Unit 1987, C. Company
9.2. Passages from the Acholi Bible
Preface
JOHN MIDDLETON
On 2 January 1985, an Acholi woman from northern Uganda named Alice Auma was possessed by an alien Christian spirit known as Lakwena (‘Messenger’ in Acholi), and became known as Alice Lakwena. From this
